Hob

[Maf]

So I bought this (Guessing by RF’s posts 2 years ago?) and have just started playing it and this is awesome. It’s a bit rough on the technical side, but it makes up for it in real playability. I just had to really put an effort in to pulling my self away from it to get ready for Nintendo. 

 

Clearly heavily inspired by A Link to the Past then dunked in that indie game, calming soundscape driven atmosphere it’s very easy to pick up and even more difficult to put back down. The big difference between this and a regular Zelda game is the map seems to be more Dark Souls inspired then Zelda. Meaning that instead of having an overworld to zig zag across to make progress it’s more linear with each area feeling unto itself and sort of like a big puzzle box/dungeon, and then once completed it spits you out at the Firelink Shrine equivalent and then you go to a different area. 

 

At at least that seems to be the case so far. Game play is very reliant on push this, pull that and less gimmick focused than a typical Zelda game, but it feels surprisingly good and is a game that really moves which I like a lot. 

 

I think this this is a prime example of a little gem. It’s not blowing my mind in terms of newness but it has taken me by surprise because of how fun it is. 

[radiofloyd]

What are you playing it on? I heard there were some compromises made for the Switch port (probably completely unnoticeable but anyway) so I’m still planning to pick it up on Steam.

[Maf]

I’m playing it on PS4. 

[Bob]

I felt much about the same as you at the start, Maf but the game really began to wear thin after a while. I think it took me a year and a half to finish it. 

 

 

If you've got 25 minutes to spare after you've beat the game this is a great review and since I've forgotten most of why I didn't like it, but remember agreeing with everything he said, it's like this is basically me but with a stupid American accent instead of a smooth and sexy one. 

[Rikzilla]

Played this when it came out and really enjoyed it.

[Maf]

So I finally went back to this game after 3 or 4 weeks or however long it’s been and finished it. It took a second getting back in to it because I didn’t really remember anything about it at all. The first hour was just following any puzzles that were in front of me and not really knowing what the overall objective was. Which made it really hard when at one point it took me into the overworld and I just had to randomly roll around until I found the entrance to the second part of the water cave (It does the equivlant to that desert dungeon in ALttP for reference but not as obvious).

 

Anyway, almost pretty good overall except for the silly “core” quest straight at the end and the technical issues. The cores was annoying because you have to get 3 of them and one of them is given to you at the end which I didn’t know. So I spent ages and ages combing the map for something which wasn’t there.

 

And this game is just so bad on the technical side. Multiple crashes, falling through the floor, my map glitched out just showing purple and yellow squares, it couldn’t even keep up with loding the geometry on screen, a couple of times I touched a wall and died for no reason, the frame rate almost gave me a headache at times. I would be curious how this game worked on Switch because even if you take a downgrade visually if it’s more stable then that has to be the place to play it. I think this game is one notch above being inexcusable for that stuff. Things I’m not particularly fussy about or sensitive too but this game is really not very stable. 

 

But, it’s pretty cool. Solid little Zelda-like, although not very original at all. 

[radiofloyd]

Finally played this for 90 minutes earlier and I’m about to dive back in right now. Enjoyed what I played so far. Experienced one crash within the first five minutes but since then it’s been smooth. Like Maf said it zips along at a fair old pace. It reminds me more of Metroid Prime than most “Metroidvanias” do. The ambient music is a bit forgettable though. I wish they had gone with something more tuneful.

[Craymen Edge]

Hob is free tomorrow on the Epic game store.

[radiofloyd]

Five hours into this and I’m enjoying it. I’ve put about three decent sessions into it. Nothing about it is particularly impressive but it’s well designed in terms of constantly keeping you moving forward. 

[Rikzilla]

I really enjoyed Hob. Was nice to have a Zelda style game on PS4.

[radiofloyd]

This game is getting better as it goes along. It’s got a little bit of Zelda, a little bit of Metroid Prime, a little bit of Ico - it’s not as good as any of those but it’s a really good try. I said nothing about the game is particularly impressive but I take that back, the visuals are quite stunning. The more I play it the more I like it.

[radiofloyd]

Finished after 17 hours, 23/37 achievements. 
 

I went back after clearing it to try and access a part of the map that appeared to be part of the game, but I eventually found out it wasn’t. I spent a lot of time before and after finishing the game trying to access that area, oh well...

 

Its a great game that in a sense is the opposite of something like Torchlight, it shows that Runic had a lot of talent. It says something about the game that it had enough of a pull on me that I had to finish it before devoting myself to FF7.

 

It reminded me of Hollow Knight in the way that it starts off simple but slowly blossoms into this grand adventure (although it is relatively compact compared to HK). If I had one complaint It would be that I thought the game was building towards something more than it was, but that’s being a bit harsh. 
 

Great game, terrible name. 8/10

[Maryokutai]

I'm playing it as well at the moment. I'm in a dungeon at the water area and while I still enjoy playing it, I feel like the beginning was better. At some point the game just opens up immensely which I think doesn't quite work in its favour as it lacks any kind of standout features that help you with orientation, because everything kind of looks the same, particularly in the forest segments. The map is more like a general guide than a big help as well, which is fine by itself but both of these points result in me more or less stumbling upon the correct path rather than consciously taking it. The first couple of hours did that a lot better, gently nudging you in the right direction without ever straight up telling you what to do.

 

I'd like to say this was just me nitpicking but it does dampen my enjoyment quite a bit. But I also still think it's a really good game, so there's that. Hard to believe something like this was Runic's downfall – maybe it just came out at the wrong time and on the wrong platform.

[Maryokutai]

Finished this yesterday after a long pause. Overall I liked it, but I seem to have missed some crucial side content that would have helped understanding the very short and abrupt ending a bit better. And when I say "missed" it's more the case that I didn't want to explore the world that much. The level design is extremely clever and was probably a nightmare to get working but unfortunately it also means it's really hard to read for the player. When I go through an area the first time, misaligned and full of bad goo, and then re-align it and get rid of the goo it's just something completely different entirely and whatever location I wanted to get to earlier but couldn't I now have trouble finding again because everything looks different. In that way it also doesn't help the game has a fixed camera perspective or a useful map for that matter.

 

I might still try to find the last three sword pieces which I presume are necessary to do something at these walls with the sword emblem. But overall I think the game is just a tad too hard to read and while you eventuell find your way around, it doesn't really motivate you to comb the world for those 100% like you would in Zelda or Metroid.

[HandsomeDead]

I finished this yesterday and I thought it was a frustrating.  I thought it was a pretty charming game with simple environmental puzzles based in these clockwork, kinda steampunk dungeons with a nice, quiet atmosphere which at times made me think of a scaled down Ico and I low-key enjoyed that aspect.

 

But, yeah I thought it was too easy to get lost due to a lack of landmarks and too much of it looking too similar.  It's obviously going for an early Zelda type thing but nearly every screen is fairly memorable so getting around is less of a problem.  While I didn't mind the combat at first but when enemies started to get more durable and do more damage I started to really dislike it and found myself only fighting if I absolutely had to.  And I was playing on Switch technical issues and performance is rough; I thought it may be this version but seeing the PS4 having similar issues and Panic Button doing this port who got DOOM Eternal running consistently I guess it probably is inherent to the game.  Maybe it needs a PC to brute force its way through.

 

The end has a choice but its hard to really make one since the story is just inferred with silent, animated characters and the things you do progressing through the game.  You can side with a creature who helps you when you're about to die but does appear to be the cause of all the nastiness and blight that you spend the game clearing up.  I wasn't sure what was happening so spared them but I restarted and tried to eliminate it but then that goes into a fight with an assistant character and I tried a few times but I really disliked the combat so I just forgot it and decided to take the other ending.

 

It's not the worst but I think there's other games like this that are better if you're looking for this kind of game.  Actually, I'll just say it.  After I was done with this I started on the game this reminds me of a lot that doesn't have the issues this has and is what Hob should be: Hyper Light Drifter.  I never finished that so it seems sad I finish this and not that, so I feel I have to do that now.